Beach Reads - Beach Brides - Big Bargain - @MagdalenaScott

 

Can a message in a bottle lead to love?

Grab your beach hat and a towel and prepare for a boxed set brought to you by nine New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors…

Beach Brides! Fun in the summer sun!

When a group of diehard romantics share a silly dare to stuff a note in a bottle addressed to their dream guy and cast it out to sea, will they actually find him? Or will their romantic wish remain adrift?

Find out with these nine delightful sweet romances that will keep you reading well into the night!

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Apple Books

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Google Play

Website: https://magdalenascott.com/

Spring brings changes by Laura Ashwood

Just a few days ago we celebrated the first day of spring. The day that has exactly as many hours of daylight as night. To be honest with you, I struggle a little with spring. As I sit and look out my window, everything looks so drab. And muddy...so much mud. 

Here in Minnesota, spring is the time of year that the weather develops a severe case of ADHD. Just a few days ago I had three weather alerts on my phone the same day: severe thunderstorm warning, tornado warning and winter storm warning. It was 54 degrees today and it's supposed to snow tomorrow. 

But, spring is also the time when the tree bud and turn green with new life. Baby animals scamper in the woods and yard, the birds come back, flowers start to bloom and the earth seems to come alive again. It's a time for new beginnings...growth, renewal and transformation.

I've been thinking about transformation myself lately. I cut 12 inches off my hair, am trying to get into shape (one that isn't round), and I'm writing in a new genre....women's fiction. One of my favorite things about women's fiction is the transformation and change in the stories. 

Today, my first women's fiction novel, Summer at Bluefin Bay, releases as part of a box set with 11 other wonderful authors, called A Place to Belong.  

The idea for Summer at Bluefin Bay came to me one summer afternoon when I was on a four-wheeler ride with my husband. I actually had him turn back home so I could write it down before I forgot it. I wrote it in 31 days during NaNoWrimo (November novel writing month) and the story just fell together for me...

One man. Two lives. A summer that changes everything.

Abby is devastated when her husband of nearly fifteen years dies in a car accident. Then she’s shocked to discover he’s been living a secret life, and that she's been named guardian of the daughter she didn't know he had.

Determined to make the best of an impossible situation, she agrees to temporary guardianship while a private investigator searches for other family. But Michael’s secret life brings further problems, and Abby feels more lost than ever before.

Needing to get away from everything, Abby rents the two of them a house for the summer in the seaside town of Bluefin Bay. As she and the girl painfully adjust to their new situation, Abby begins to discover who she really is. 

What will Abby do when news from the private investigator forces her to make a life-altering decision?

Summer at Bluefin Bay is an emotionally charged story of overcoming grief and learning to find yourself when you least expect it.

It's available for just 99 cents for a limited time. 

Kindle: https://melstorm.com/Belong_Kindle

Apple: https://melstorm.com/Belong_Apple

Nook: https://melstorm.com/Belong_Nook

Kobo: https://melstorm.com/Belong_Kobo

Decking the Halls by Kristin Wallace

Are your holiday decorations up yet? Are you one of those people who puts up a tree and lights right after Halloween? I don't know why, but just pulling everything out of the storage boxes is enough to warm your heart. Every piece evokes memories of your childhood or when your kids were little. They might make you think of your parents or grandparents. 

We all have traditional decorations that must be set out every year. I now have two places to decorate...my apartment and my parents' house. My parents have all the ornaments and decorations that I grew up with. We collect the Hallmark dated ornaments, which started waaaaay back in 1976. 

As you can imagine there are quite a lot of them at this point. There are also ornaments that my brother and I made, including a set of nativity characters. 

My apartment is a little more eclectic as it's a mix of my things and those of my roommate. 

 

Do you have special decorations that must be put up every year? Where did they come from and what do they remind you of? 

Kristin Wallace is the USA Today Best Selling Author of sweet contemporary and inspirational romance filled with Love, Laughter, and a Leap of Faith. She is the author of the three popular series, Covington
Falls Chronicles, Shellwater Key Tales, and Palm Cove Tales. 

Looking for a great read that will put you in the holiday mood? Download the Christmas in Shellwater Key box set, on sale for only 99 cents. Enjoy three fun & festive holiday tales set in sunny Florida. 

A beach read to take you away...by Kristin Wallace

It's been such a craaaaaaazy year. I barely know what day it is, let alone the month. The world seems to have stopped sometime in March, like a weird Twilight episode. Since most of us have been on

lockdown, it might be a good time to take a virtual vacation. How does Florida sound? A quaint beach town filled with characters you will love.

I'm talking about my Shellwater Key Tales series. The books have been out for awhile, but now I'm getting ready to release a 4-book Box Set, "Four Tales From Paradise". (I already put together a box set with three holiday novellas.)

These books follow 3 childhood friends who return to their hometown when their lives fall apart. They become involved in reviving the old Paradise Dinner Theatre. 

Four Tales From Paradise – Shellwater Key Tales 

Three childhood friends return to their hometown at a crossroads in life. One slightly past-her-prime dinner theatre in need of some TLC will show them that love, and healing, is still possible by the time the curtain rises.

Left Turn At Paradise (Layla & Grayson’s story)

Layla McCarthy has spent most of her life trying to outrun the wild reputation of the mother who abandoned her as a baby. Raised by her grandmother, one of the first female surgeons in Florida. Layla puts all her faith in building a career, only to lose everything when her business partner absconds with the company funds. Then she learns her grandmother and great aunt have bought an old, rundown dinner theater in her hometown of Shellwater Key.

Bringing The Paradise back to life will play a key role in bringing about a brand new act in her life. Including a romance with Grayson Kendall, the enigmatic and sexy director hired to produce the first show. At the same time, the mother who abandoned her as a baby returns seeking redemption.

Can she learn to forgive her mother and open her heart to love? 

Coming Home to Paradise (Beth’s story)

This is the companion book to Left Turn At Paradise, telling the story of Layla’s mother, Beth McCarthy.

After years of trying to outrun the memories and guilt, Beth McCarthy has come home to Shellwater Key to make amends. She has survived deadbeat relationships, single motherhood, and a fight with cancer. Now, she faces the most difficult battle of her life…finding a way to connect with the legendary mother she was never able to please…and earning the forgiveness of the daughter who has every reason to hate her. She might even have a chance to find the missing piece of her heart when Layla’s father comes back to Shellwater Key looking for answers. 

Straight On Toward Paradise (Emma & Reece’s story)

As a teenager, Emma Bertram’s perfect family splintered when her father left her mother for another woman. Anger and bitterness, along with the demands of being a professional chef, have kept Emma apart from her father and his new family for years. Then her father and stepmother are killed in a car accident. Returning to her childhood home of Shellwater Key, Emma learns she has become guardian of her two half-sisters.

What Emma knows about raising children could fit on a restaurant napkin. Then there’s her father’s law partner, Reece Casings, who has no trouble telling Emma what she’s doing wrong. The buttoned-up, so-wrong-for-her, but oh-so-handsome lawyer makes Emma’s blood boil. Or is it heart race? 

In the end, Emma will have to learn how to forgive her father…and herself…and trust in love and faith again if she ever hopes to serve up a happily ever after for everyone.

Last Stop At Paradise (Callie & Noah’s story)

When Callie Dalton’s charismatic televangelist husband falls into disgrace, she and their children is taken down with him. Now, he’s dead, and Callie is left with no other choice but to return to Shellwater Key…and the memories of the mother who tragically died there when Callie was just a girl.

A job as the House Manager at the Paradise Dinner Theatre seems like a chance to start over. However, every instinct warns that the sexy and mysterious carpenter, Noah Johnson, could be the most dangerous complication in her life…and her wary heart. 

When she learns his secrets, will she be able to face her own tragic past and embrace the possibility of a love that will finally set her free?

Four Tales from Paradise will launch in a few days so look for it. All of the Shellwater Key Tales books are in Kindle Unlimited right now so you can scoop them up for free if you're a subscriber. 

Check my Amazon Author Page for all of my books. 

Kristin Wallace is a USA Today Bestselling Author of sweet contemporary and inspirational romance filled with "Love, Laughter, and a Leap of Faith". It's not too late to pick up her holiday box set featuring three Christmas romances (Finding You At Christmas, Falling For You At Christmas, and Loving You At Christmas). Christmas in Shellwater Key is available on Kindle Unlimited so go ahead and scoop it up now. 

BUY NOW ON AMAZON

Grandmothers on Mother’s Day

While browsing through my old blog posts I came across the following one that brought tears to my eyes. It was published on my own blog in May 2008:

Today I celebrated Mother’s Day as a daughter, mother and grandmother. My son-in-lay invited four generations of women to lunch. My daughter and her two little daughters, 4 and 2, and my son’s daughter, 3, visiting from Chicago, my mother and myself.
Lunch was lovely. We ignored the spilled glass of orange juice, the I-don’t-like-it whining and the crumbles forming a hidden mess under the table.

It took fifteen minutes to sit the ladies for the picture of the century. Moving my mother and her walker to a strategic place, and then having her hold on the rail of the restaurant's entrance stairs wasn’t too difficult, but gathering three laughing, squealing and squirming little girls and having them stand still for two seconds was an enormous challenge. But the effort was worth the pain. The children are growing too fast and we don’t know how long we will be blessed with my mother’s presence.
Sometimes Mother’s Day is a difficult time. I know it is extremely difficult for my cousin who lost her mother’s a week ago. For her and her family, Mother’s Day consisted in a trip to the cemetery to deposit flowers on a new grave.
 Enjoy your mothers and enjoy your day as a mother.

My mother left us two years later.

To honor her I wrote a romance novel called MOTHER'S DAY BABIES, a novel full of emotion and humor, and dedicated the book to “the mothers we celebrate on Mother’s Day and those we remember with love.”

 I had two great models for my middle-aged heroine, my mother and mother-in-law. Both always spoke their own minds and distributed good advice whether you wanted them or not.

My mother-in-law was a funny person with a sharp wit.

My mother told us to always 'look your best'. She practiced what she preached. Mom professed that being nicely dressed, combed and jeweled helped her forget she was a very sick person. The assisted living residents complimented her and tried to follow her example. The staff admired her positive attitude.

Most of my books include a grandmother among the characters. Depending on the setting of my stories, the children call her grandma, abuelita, nonna, yaya, or baboushka, but the grandmothers in my various novels have a lot in common.

Like my mother and my mother-in-law, they adore their grandchildren, cook delicious meals, and often meddle in their children’s life —for the children’s good, of course. They are strong women who have encountered their shares of problems and learned life’s lessons from personal experience. They are also generous mothers who would go out of their ways for their families.



This book is my contribution to a box of mostly sweet romances, LOVE BLOOMS ON MAIN STREET.
Barnes & Noble Pre-Order: http://ow.ly/LCayI
Kobo Pre-Order: http://ow.ly/LCaC4
Amazon http://ow.ly/LF60i

Mona Risk is a USA TODAY bestselling author of sweet--and not-so-sweet--romantic comedies. You can view all her books at www.monarisk.com or sign for her newsletter. 

BTW, HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR OUR SWEET ROMANCE READS NEWSLETTER YET? The second of our three yearly issues will come out in June--OUR SUMMER READS issue. This will feature a few very short NEW romance stories and info about our authors and their latest books. Look to your right for NEWSLETTER SIGN UP and enter your email. It's that EZ!

 

Real News for Inspiration

Internet and TV often report news of combat scenes in foreign countries, explosion, kidnapping, and similar depressing events. Our hearts go to the military men and women fighting for freedom and human rights around the world. I have also been impressed by the courage and will-power of the journalists who have not been trained to carry weapons and defend themselves, and yet travel to these war-zones to collect news. Have you noticed how many are reported killed or missing?

While reading about these reporters, I imagined a fearless young woman attacked by ruffians in Baghdad and saved by an Iraqi officer. A friendship develops between the dashing officer and the lovely foreigner. He falls in love. Back to the U.S. she realizes their cultures and mentalities are too different. 

As is often common in these unstable areas, explosions happen claiming young lives, and she is left with the memories built during a difficult time, the friendship of his family, and maybe a stronger reality that will never allow her to forget the foreign officer...even when she meets her true love.

Getting involved with fearless reporter, Roxanne, involves more complications than Dr. Greg has ever faced in the OR. 

VALENTINE BABIES, an emotional romance novel sprinkled with humor, is Book 2 in Holiday Babies and has garnered over 70 reviews, EPIC’s Ebook Award Finalist, and a Gold Medal Best Contemporary Romance Novel at Readers Favorite.

VALENTINE BABIES is my contribution to the HEARTS and KISSES box on pre-order at various venues:

Links for HEARTS and KISSES:

Kindle US: http://amzn.to/15fpuQh

Kindle  UK : http://amzn.to/1E6G2sW

Kobo: http://ow.ly/HLB7h

iBook: http://ow.ly/HLCsK

Facebook Event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1518880381707347

Mona Risk is pleased to announce that her new book WEDDING SURPRISE, Book 4 in Holiday Babies  is on pre-order at Amazon, Kobo, Nook, iTunes.

“Mona Risk knows how to pull a reader into the minds of her well-crafted characters. Her work takes us on a journey be it local or overseas.”~Night Owl Reviews.  

A USA Today Bestselling Author, Mona Risk, has garnered an Outstanding Achiever 2013 Award at Affaire de Coeur Magazine. She’s also a Best Romance Novel winner at Preditors & Editors Readers Poll; Two-Time winner of Best Contemporary Romance Novel at Readers Favorite, EPIC’s Ebook Award Finalist, and is in the Kindle Top 100 Bestselling Author.

Secret Telling with the Heroes of Sweet Christmas Kisses

It's time for a little secret telling! Today the heroes of Sweet Christmas Kisses join us to discuss a quality that first attracted them to their heroine. Readers, what qualities do you find attractive in a hero/heroine?

Every comment this week on our blog will earn an entry into a book prize package to be announced on Saturday! Comment every day to increase your chances of winning!

Gentlemen, what is one thing that first attracted you to your heroine? 

Aaron Chase (An Almost Perfect Christmas by Donna Fasano): "As beautiful as Christy Cooper is, I think what first attracted me to her was her selflessness. I've never met anyone so willing to help others. I could tell right away she was much more vulnerable than she was letting on."

Paul Love (Mistletoe in Maine by Ginny Baird): "There's nothing like a woman who can inspire four minutes of chaos in your first five minutes of meeting. I have to say Carol Baker immediately captured my attention: in a very big way."

Sean Fabian (The Army Doctor's Christmas Baby by Helen Scott Taylor): "Kelly didn't throw herself at me. Sounds weird, I know, but so many women come on to me it was nice to meet a beautiful woman who didn't."

Conran Dark (Story Times by Beate Böker): "When she straggled into my home during a storm, I lost my heart to those brown eyes almost immediately."

Jackson Hardaway (The Christmas Promise by Melinda Curtis): "Her bravery. She could have left me in the jungle as snake bait, but she didn't."

Nick Randolph (Christmas in White Oak by Aileen Fish): "We have been friends since we were kids, but I remember one day when I was a senior in high school and she was a junior. We were talking about whatever and she told a funny story. When she laughed, I realized how much I loved that sound. Knowing she was happy made me happy. I just didn’t know at the time how much that meant."

Dr. Tony Lorenzo (Her Christmas Cruise by Mona Risk): "With seraphic blue eyes and a riot of blond strands escaping from a brown, fur-lined hood, she was the prettiest thing he’d seen in a long time. Her delicious mouth rounded in an O of admiration."

Jim Standish (Small Town Christmas by Magdalena Scott): "I was attracted to Melissa Singer because she paid no attention to me. Growing up, she was a good friend of my sisters, Carla and Francie, and treated me and my brother David almost as if we were her own brothers. I always did like a challenge, and Mel has sure been worth it!"

Michael Campbell (By Christmas by Kristin Wallace): “Her eyes. They can be green or blue and they are always flecked with gold. I can get lost in them.”

*****

Sweet Christmas Kisses, a bundle of PG-rated romance novels and novellas from USA Today, national bestselling, and award-winning authors.

Sweet Christmas Kisses takes you from small-town USA to England, Scotland, and even Ecuador; from the beach to snow-capped mountains, and to the wild--sometimes magical--west. The Sweet Christmas Kisses bundle will bring you laughter, tears, and always joy, for more than 1600 pages. Foreword by New York Times bestselling author, Brenda Novak.

~Available Now~

Amazon | BN | Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

Every comment this week on our blog will earn an entry into a book prize package shown here, winner to be announced on Saturday! Comment every day to increase your chances of winning!

Prize pack contains: 2 autographed sweet romances from friends of SRR (The Promise of Rain by Rula Sinara, Mountains Apart by Carol Ross), a book bag from Rula Sinara, an Alaskan key chain from Carol Ross, a purse-size first aid kit from Roz Denny Fox, a heart-shaped stress ball, a Sweet & Heartwarming bracelet, a bee set of salt & pepper shakers, sweet wooden embellishments (hello, darling, cute, friends, sunshine, lovely).